Apple Pay To Launch In UK By July 2015

On Monday, during the Worldwide Developers Conference, San Francisco, Apple confirmed that ‘Apple Pay’ is to be launched in UK. The services are expected to be launched by July along with being available at more than 250,000 locations.

Apple Pay lets users pay for things both online and offline with the help of their phone or watch. The system works in conjunction with an NFC which lets users pay for goods by tapping their phones on contact-less card readers in stores. The NFC chips are found in the latest iPhones and the Apple Watch.

With the Apple’s contact-less payment system, users can pay for retailers which includes Marks & Spencer, Costa, Waitrose and Transport for London. Apple’s executive, Jennifer Bailey, at the WWDC stated that more than 70% of the credit and debit cards will be supported by the Apple Pay.

The payment system was slow to expand its territories. It last launched in America in 2014 along with the iPhone 6. Britain is the first country outside the US to have access to the use of Apple Pay.

The launch this time is expected to be much simpler because the company will be using the same technology. But this time Apple Pay includes an extra security measure which ensures that the card details on the phone are never passed to the retailer. Now the payee will receive a one-use ‘token’ that allows the user to debit the payment though, it cannot be reused in the future.

The same system will be used for the Online payment which will speed up the process of transacting allowing the iPhone owners to pay for goods.

According to Auriemma Consulting, in the US, the Apple Pay was strong with more than 40% of the iPhone 6 owners using the services at least once.